Gematriot - the numerical values of the Holy Hebrew Letters, reveal the deeper meaning of what the Torah wants to convey to us. Far more than just an intellectual game, Hashem - with His complex wisdom via the road of Gematriot - teaches us all about living the REAL Jewish way of life. Gematriot are mentioned in virtually every section of Jewish literature - Talmud, Midrash, Zohar, and Halacha.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

#78 - Holy Marriage - Part 2

Normally, unless I am continuing a theme from my previous post, I do not put a "Part 2" to the new post that I am writing, but rather, a new title. In this case, I am continuing a theme that I began a year ago from my 41st Post (Aug '09) which is called "Holy Marriage". The same title of this post is no less relevant to this post as it was for my first Holy Marriage post which contained quite a bit of Gematriot.

While intermarriages between Jews and non-Jews have been nothing new - as even some of the exiled Jews in Babylonia following the destruction of the First Temple had non-Jewish wives besides their own Jewish life, and only got rid of them in fear of being ostracized from the newly formed Jewish settlement in Israel after leaving Babylonia among some 40,000 Jews. But at least then, there was no attempt to make anything that wasn't Jewish to appear as Jewish.

And this is the thrust of this post - in contrast to my previous post where I lamented about Jews who are supposedly living an observant Jewish lifestyle who include materialism and other distractions that take them away from the essence of what it is all about, as it happened with the Jews in Babylonia who intermarried; today, those Jews who virtually do not observe anything in the way of Judaism - except maybe a quick circumcision for their newborn by a Jewish doctor who doesn't perform the ancient rite in the kosher way, and to appear at a temple on Yom Kippur night for Kol Nidrei while having no concept of what this Kol Nidrei prayer is really about, want to make things that aren't Jewish to appear as Jewish.

I've already touched on this subject before. For example, the food establishments who have the chutzpa to say that they are a "kosher style" restaurant which only means that they serve things like gefilte fish, matza ball soup, and corned beef sandwiches as though this is supposed to sound like Jewish food, while the meat - chicken, turkey, beef, etc. are not kosher because they were not slaughtered the kosher way, and their blood and forbidden fats weren't removed from them; the only difference being is that they don't have names like ham, pork, or bacon.

Then of course, you have the so called Jewish conversions of non-Jews; and whether it's a small minority and a big majority of the time, these non-Jews go through this bogus conversion ceremony so they can marry their boyfriend or girlfriend to please the in-laws. But even some of these non-Jews know that this is all bogus, and they are 100% right, because they will hardly be observing anything more of Judaism afterwards than they did before when they just celebrated Christmas with their own family and friends, besides the fact that their "conversion" does not conform with Halachic standards, which automatically means that these non-Jews do not have the holiness that a Jew has, and aren't obligated to observe any more Mitzvot than what non-Jews are obligated to perform.

Of course I don't expect too much more from Jews who are virtually ignorant of their own religion as they weren't educated or brought up to know what it is really about, even if they had some kind of Bar Mitzvah ceremony, including reading from the Torah. And as being one who was raised as observant, it is very hard for me to rightfully judge others who weren't lucky to have the religious background that I had. However, what does bother me is when Jews who are ignorant of their heritage make Judaism sound like one big joke, which can at times even arouse anti-Semitism.

Take Adam Sandler for instance. He composed a song about Chanuka. Perhaps if he would have left it with matching words that rhyme with the name of this holiday, it wouldn't have been so terrible. But in the midst of this song, he starts mentioning how non-Jews have only one day to celebrate - Christmas, while we Jews have eight days to celebrate. Now, while it is true that many non-Jews take a whole long vacation week from Christmas Eve until after New Years, and they even have a song about 12 days of Christmas which is actually based on the first 12 days from the dedication of the Tabernacle when the leader of one of the 12 Tribes of Israel brought sacrifices representing his tribe, lyrics such as Mr. Sandler's can only stir much hatred towards Jews from Christians, as though it's not enough how Jews have been murdered in the name of Christianity for nearly 2,000 years. And then the ultimate Chutzpa (and of course he got well paid for his song), Mr. Sandler wound up years later marrying a non-Jewish woman who went through a bogus Jewish conversion. I guess that's what he meant in his "Chanuka" song where he mentions "half-Jewish". Sorry, Mr. Sandler, stop fooling yourself! Not only is the woman whom you married truly a gentile, no matter how good of a person she may be, as you broke a 3,500+ year old chain of Jewish generations, but she is not even "half-Jewish", because there is in fact no such thing; as one who has a Jewish mother is 100% Jewish, and one who has a non-Jewish mother is 100% not Jewish. Period!

And before continuing, in case anyone is wondering here if any Gematriot will be mentioned in this highly emotional post, it is true that when Joseph was sold as a slave thanks to his brothers' hatred of him that he wound up being in charge of the affairs in the household of Potiphar, who had a high position working for Pharaoh. As the verse describes the managerial position of Joseph, Potiphar left all household affairs in Joseph's hands, and didn't know of anything "except for the BREAD that he was accustomed to eat". While this can make sense very well literally, Rashi points out that in fact, the word bread in this verse (Genesis 39:6)refers to Potiphar's wife, the reason being "for it (the Torah) speaks in a clean language". A little later on, I will show the connection between the aspect of bread and a wife, but what I want to point out now is that the Hebrew word for bread - Lechem, is the Gematria of 78, and this is my 78th Post.

In my opinion, while a non-observant Jewish couple who are getting married may not live an observant way of life following marriage, let alone the laws of family purity, the fact that each looked to marry someone Jewish to begin with is certainly a starting point showing that they have some form of Jewish pride. In some of these cases, they feel that at least their Jewish marriage should be done the kosher way, and many of them even have an Orthodox Jewish rabbi perform their ceremony. Yes, they may continue living the same non-observant way after marriage as they did before, but in many cases, it has been proven sooner or later that either they looked to give their children some sort of Jewish education, one or more of their children have come closer to Judaism, and sometimes, they themselves eventually look for what the inner meaning of what Judaism is about, which leads to them keeping a completely religious Jewish life as a unified couple.

Unfortunately, in stark contrast, the opposite of what I describe in the previous paragraph shows its respective results. Quite often, one can already tell with some people where their heart is really headed. It is true that some Jews who had some sort of Jewish education as they are in their teens or early twenties in college may strike it up with a non-Jewish partner; and though they know that their significant other isn't Jewish, they don't feel that they can tear apart their feelings for each other; there are others who to begin with have no feelings of Jewish pride whatsoever, as sometimes evidenced by how they feel about the poor "Palestinians" and how the Jewish state is "brutally" treating them, in short, what is called left-wing/liberal Democratic politics.

Yes my friends, I think it's about time that you know to whose recent wedding that I am referring to here. Now, I'm not writing this so that the bridegroom of Clintons' daughter will be reading this, because even if he were to read this post, I highly doubt that it will lead to anything positive constructive in terms of reawakening his Jewish roots. You see, this was not just another wedding of an intermarried couple between Jews and non-Jews that we are talking about here. It was real obvious that this was a major news item, and they were even mentioning in the news that it would be a little challenging to find a rabbi willing to perform the ceremony being that this was a high profile case. So if the "lucky" bridegroom had a chance to think about how he was about to turn his back to his 3,500+ year old Jewish ancestry, then was the time to think twice before breaking the Jewish knot.

Of course, the Jewish liberal Democrats had a field day. If they ever wanted to prove that the Clintons "love" Jews to other Jews who know the truth about the Clintons, this was their ultimate chance as far as they were concerned. After all, if the Clintons' only child was going to marry someone Jewish and with her parents' blessings, then who is to say otherwise?

Well, as we know from the Torah, one who causes someone else to sin is even worse than someone who is an axe murderer, because while the murderer takes someone's life only from this world, the one who causes others to sin takes takes someone's life from the world of eternity, being cut off spiritually, G-d forbid. While to those whose sense of Jewish religion includes speaking all about the Holocaust who eat the non-kosher corned beef sandwiches, Christian missionaries who sneakily attempt to lure non-suspecting Jews into their cult are not as evil as Hitler, the Torah's opinion is what counts. True, Hitler was a very evil person, even as he wanted to do away with the Jewish conscience as he wrote in his book Mein Kampf; but going not far back in Jewish history in Europe, Christians used all types of methods in their vicious attempt to convert Jews to their idolatrous religion, which included murder and torture, but if the Jew indeed converted which did happen unfortunately at times, to them, he was like gold, because they were able to show how even a Jew can be a Christian, in the guise of "saving his soul".

And so, anyone who is as honest as Phillip Berg, Esq., though a lifetime Democrat, on a campaign to dethrone Democratic Obama from the presidency based on what it really states in the United States Constitution - www.obamacrimes.com, can take one look at the Clintons' record to see them for what they really are.

To many liberal Democratic Jews, the Oslo Accords where President Clinton presided over Rabin and Arafat making "peace" is viewed as a sign of Mr. Clinton's love for Jews and the Jewish State. Along the same lines, few of them had disdain for Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky affair. After all, he first denied any sexual contact with the White House Jewish intern, so of course, you can't accuse him of anything unless he admits it. Then later, he expressed regret and remorse, which I believe was real, because it was over doing something that made him look bad, not about the fact that he actually did wrong, aside from the fact that he caused a Jewess to perform Aveirot/sins by doing lewd acts to him. In fact, he even read a prayer at a function since the affair, composed by a reform rabbi on the topic of repentance. And so, since he "repented", he wasn't the worst president after all, and the fact that the White House intern happened to be Jewish wasn't much of a concern to his loyal followers, as it didn't involve hard core politics or Israel.

And so, Bill Clinton causing Jews to sin didn't end there. Now it is true, there are some anti-Semitic leaders of countries who would never dream of allowing their son or daughter to marry someone Jewish, unless maybe the new Jewish family member would convert outside of his or her faith. However, at least this means that one less Jew will be marrying out of the faith. In sharp contrast, even as Chelsea is the Clintons' sole child, it didn't seem to bother them that a "Jew-boy" will be the very one to marry their only beloved child. After all, they probably know by now that in fact, their grandchildren will be no more Jewish than they are, and the chances of them wanting to become Jewish and living as such will be virtually null. And so, besides the actual marriage ceremony of a Jew marrying their daughter; every time the son-in-law Marc Mezvinsky sleeps with their daughter, they are causing a Jew to sin, even as they think in their hearts that unlike the "fanatical" Jewish settlers who are the "troublemakers" in the Jewish-Arab conflict, Mr. Mezvinsky is a "good" Jewish boy. In fact, this may very well be a first in the United States history where a child of a U.S. president married someone Jewish.

Of course, this is not even to speak of the "good" Jewish boy being a left-wing radical, fitting perfectly with the Clintons' attitude towards how they view the Jewish State should be like with their vain dream of a two state solution. And perhaps what it most disturbing of the Clintons' stance of Jews and "Palestinians", is how New York Senator Hillary Clinton was once together with Itamar Marcus, founder and director of Palestinian Media Watch - www.palwatch.org, an organization which tracks down how our enemy nation looks to demonize Jews in various media outlets, by translating their Arabic to English. Anyways, as I saw on video, following Mrs. Clinton watching how the "Palestinians" are educating their children to hate Jews and Israel, robbing them of all sense of human decency and constructive education, including praising suicide bombers, she spoke about how terrible this is, and that things need to be done to change this around. Well, the next thing you know, she was back with her old tactics of pushing for our enemies to have their "Palestinian" state at our expense.

It's scary to think how someone like Mrs. Clinton after seeing the stark truth should continue with her politics showing her real hatred of Jews and Israel was able to be of the top two running Democratic candidates just a couple of years back along with Obama. At that point, it was clear that something was going to be a first in United States history, even if neither of them would succeed in actually being the next president. The leading party candidate was either going to be a woman, or someone who is black (Jesse Jackson was also a running candidate up to Election Day, but he wasn't the sole runner for the presidency in the Democratic party). And the truth is, putting aside the fact that she is a woman, her husband was president for two terms, and she was presently a New York Senator. It also would have been a first for a First Couple to return living in the White House because it would be the other spouse who would be president, though under all other circumstances according to the Constitution, it would be realistically impossible for any given president to live no more than eight years in the most famous house in the world.

Now getting to the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding, all the wrong combinations took place, including the fact that this took place on the HOLY Shabbat. It's interesting to note that according to Jewish law, weddings do not take place on this holy day, primarily because it could involve writing a document such as the Ketuba/marriage contract. But I don't mean that because it's forbidden to hold a wedding on Shabbat, because this was not a Jewish wedding anyways; it's the fact that a Jew marrying out of the faith took place on the holiest day of the week, violating the Shabbat both physically and spiritually by doing such a terrible sin on this holy day. And as for the reform rabbi who performed the ceremony, well, was it money, his connectons with the Clintons, or both? But the Sheva Berachot, the blessings that are recited under the wedding canopy that he chanted not only involved saying G-d's name in vain many times, but that the whole theme of these blessings is that it is a HOLY MARRIAGE, which can only be truly blessed if not only both of the marrying parties are Jewish, but if they are performed according to Halacha/Jewish law. Indeed, too many Jewish weddings performed by Conservative and Reform rabbis are not in fact valid marriages according to Halacha, including the fact that there weren't two kosher witnesses - who cannot be relatives of each other or to the marrying parties and who are G-d fearing which includes being Sabbath observant.

These Sheva Berachot, along with Marc Mezvinsky donning a skull cap and prayer shawl while holding hands with Chelsea - featured in the middle two pages of the Yediot Acharonot, a left-wing Israeli paper with the caption in Hebrew, "Chelsea, behold you are betrothed" - was a true mockery of anything and everything that Judaism stands for. It reminds me of how in a book about Jewish laws and customs written by a Conservative Jewish couple who may have meant well, they have drawings of dogs and pigs wearing a skull cap. To note, the words after Chelsea's name in the Yediot Acharonot are the beginning words of the line that the Chatan/bridegroom tells the Kala/bride as he puts the ring on her finger, "Behold, you are betrothed to me with this ring according to the religion of Moses and Israel". In the sea of ironies, the Hebrew word for betrothed is Mekudeshet, which comes from the word Kedusha/holiness. That is, the marriage or wedding is not just a great way to celebrate the beginning of a committment of a lifetime partnership of both sexes. The marriage as performed according to Jewish Law makes a Jewish couple bound together spiritually with Kedusha, and without this means, an unmarried couple who are shacking it together or sleeping with a non-Jewish person is doing the opposite -adding impurity to one's holy Neshama/soul. Incidentally, this paper which I picked up on an Egged bus, I used afterwards as part of the cat liter for our cat, putting this disgusting picture of an intermarrige taking place on the bottom part of the liter pot, rather than on the top, not wishing to see this horrible picture for as long as it would take for our feline friend to use it instead of doing her thing outdoors.

In Hebrew, the word Kadosh can actually be spelled in a similar way - Kadeish or Kedeisha, which means a harlot or prostitute, as the verse states "There shall not be a prostitute or homosexuality among Jews" (Deutronomy 23:18). In other instances, the Hebrew word used, at least for a female, is Zonah. Now the question can be asked, of course the Torah is speaking to Jews, even if some its laws, including some of the laws of sexual unions, also apply to non-Jews. After all, when Moses was speaking in the narrative in Deutronomy, he was speaking only to Jews. So, why does the verse have to specify here as translated literally "from the daughters of Israel" or "from the sons of Israel", mentioning the name of our nation specifically with this prohibition?

To answer this, we first have to note Rashi's translation for Kadeish or Kedeisha - being given over or prepared for prostitution. But the important part here is what Rashi notes "Kiddushin (Jewish marriage) does not take effect with this". You see, there is nothing holy about something that one does not intend to serve Hashem by. In fact, being a pimp is serving one's personal desires, and is not even making any committment of being the prostitute's husband or agreeing to support her after giving his money for sleeping with her once.

The bottom line is that the lack of the holiness here has to do with one's personal interested in contrast to serving Hashem's interest. You see, in a Jewish marriage, it's not simply an allowance to marry a particular woman as opposed to just sleeping with her; his marrying a Jewish woman is part of serving Hashem - beginning with the very first Mitzvah given in the Torah "Be fruitful and multiply". Of course, if one is Jewish, Hashem expects him or her to marry someone who is likewise Jewish, not only because they spiritually match as opposed to a Jew marrying a non-Jew which is the case even if they are not going to have children, but because they have to create the next generation of Jews who will be serving Hashem as well. And even though a Jewess who marries a non-Jewish guy in fact bears Jewish children, what are the chances of them living a Jewish life if half of their family influence is not Jewish? And so, marrying a non-Jewish woman is in fact like sleeping with a prostitute, because he is stamping and spitting on his own Kedusha/holiness changing it to a Kedeisha, where there is no committment to serving Hashem by marrying someone who will not be his life partner in serving Hashem and certainly will not bear children who will serve Hashem the way that He wants to be served by Jews.

In spiritual terms, Clinton has also endorsed sexual spiritual contamination in the past. The proof - since his presidency, he had endorsed John Kerry, the Democratic nominee who was up against George Bush, Jr. Now, while I am not one to say that Mr. Bush was a friend to the Jews, but at least as a Republican, along with his personal Christian background, he was against abortions and gay rights. In contrast, though Mr. Kerry was a supposed avowed Catholic, as Catholicism is supposed to be the strictest form of Christianity, he was supportive of abortions and gay rights as Clinton was. But the punchline here is - what Kerry's family name is in Hebrew. You see, the word Kerry in Hebrew, spelled as Koof-Reish-Yud, is the very word for sexual impurity! And of course let's not forget, Obama got his foot in the political world by his endorsement speech of Kerry in the summer of '04.

Yes, it is the wife, the Akeret HaBayit, the mainstay of the home, who is the BREAD of the home. While this term may be used as a euphemism in Potiphar's case, it is the wife, who not only through her cooking and baking skills, but her sense of Jewish pride and identity, who can truly hold a Jewish home together. In normal situations, especially in the old days, the husband worked much of his time outdoors while his wife did everything indoors. It was she who is/was the main one to train their children not only to eat, but to speak and learn much of the basics of Jewish learning, including through songs and games. And as we know, for a meal that concludes with the recitation of Bircat HaMazon/Grace after meals, it begins with bread, and continues with other courses with meat being the highlight. In a similar vein, the bread is the Chumash/Five Books of Moses, and the meat is the Talmud. You start a Jewish child with the bread, the Chumash, the text of the Sefer Torah, which even women who don't learn the Talmud, can also learn, which includes speaking about the weekly Parsha. It is the woman who sets the tone for how the Jewish child will take Jewish education seriously for the rest of his life, beginning with the bread of Jewish learning. And of course, this is only possible if a Jewish man marries a Jewish woman; otherwise, his children aren't Jewish; unlike a Jewish woman who marries a non-Jewish man whose children are Jewish, even though a Jewish woman is forbidden to marry out of the faith either.

In conclusion, having mentioned about intermarriage and a Sefer Torah, I must mention the true story of one rabbi recounting how he prevented Jews from marrying out of the faith. Typically, following a meeting with the parents of a Jewish boy wishing to marry his girlfriend, he met the young fellow in his synagogue during one afternoon in the week in his synagogue. Upon arrival, the rabbi asked the guy to open up the Holy Ark. "Now?" he asked. "Yes" replied the rabbi. Upon opening the Ark, the rabbi asked him to take out the Sefer Torah. "Now?" the guy repeated. "Yes" was the rabbi's return reply. Following the guy holding the Sefer Torah, the rabbi told him, "I want you now to throw the Holy Scroll on the floor, spit and step on it." "You got to be kidding" exclaimed the guy. Following this, the rabbi took the Holy Scroll from him, and told him back, "By marrying out of the faith, you are throwing, spitting and stepping on the Holy Scroll, and everything that it represents."

G-d willing, I will be writing again in a couple of days of a milestone in the history of my Gematriot blogspot.

About Me, Myself & I (Nefesh, Ruach & Neshama)

Born on Rosh Chodesh Iyar-1 Iyar- mentioned twice in the beginning of Sefer Bamidbar-Book of NUMBERS,I was born with a special GIFT OF HASHEM to reveal Torah Secrets through the means of Gematriot-value of NUMBERS of the Holy Hebrew Letters.
On Sunday,Rosh Chodesh Nissan 5768,I gave myself a 2nd Hebrew name- Matisyahu,which means GIFT OF HASHEM-naming myself after Matisyahu Ben Yochanan Kohen Gadol,the patriach of the Maccabees,who had no fear disobeying the Anti-Semitic orders of the Syrian-Greeks who forbade Jews to serve Hashem & fought for the truth that led to the holiday of Chanuka.
On Sunday,26 Kislev 5770-the 2nd day of Chanuka of this year,my added name of Matisyahu revealed itself in two ways.1)Chanuka=89,the last seven days of Chanuka beginning with the 2nd day of Chanaka was the 89th week from when I gave myself this holy name, naming myself after the righteous person who was responsible for the holiday of Chanuka.2)I got married and celebrated Sheva Berachot on this very week.The revelation of Matisyahu-GIFT OF HASHEM-was the best Chanuka gift that I ever received from Hashem,or from anyone else for that matter-my Eishet Chayil & beloved wife Yael.